Local King Research Articles

Historical Processes of Power, Knowledge, and Identity Change in Gurungs: With Relevancy to Identity Conflict and Modern Debates in Nepal

The major theme of this paper is to demystify prior theoretical concepts of cultural identity in Gurungs and tries to establish new arguments regarding identity. Most of the previous theoretical contributions found that identity always remains the same and is fixed in a single blood, land, or territory. However, this paper claims that identity cannot be understood as a fixed form, it is always changed and constructed in a historical time frame. Even different forms of cultural and ritual practices in societies have been created in certain time frames and are also being changed. Based on this, the construction of Gurungs’ identity was the consequence of long historical processes and power formation. Recently, many social scientists have argued that culture and identity should not be understood as observing the only objective reality but need to be subjected. It can be interpreted as understanding the long historical migratory processes, contacting different clans, and groups, studying the historical power formations, new knowledge establishments, economic relations, and changes. Gurungs’ identity and culture can only be interpreted by understanding the historical migratory roots in the northern foothills from Mt. Kailash to Kaski, Lamjung, and Gorkha and contact with different kings’ (local king (Kroh) powers, Ghale king powers, Hindu kings’ powers, and modern economic powers) and their formation of knowledge in a historical timeframe. Power is the major key factor in the creation of culture and identity but it does not mean only political power, rather understood as established new knowledge formation in the society.

Life and Worldview of the Sogdians according to the Afrasyab Paintings

This article focuses on the relations between Sogdiana and neighboring kingdoms during the second half of the seventh century CE as reflected in the Afrasyab paintings (Samarkand). In this unique painted program to be precisely dated to the period btween 650-675, Sogdian artists represented several foreigners such as Turks, Chinese, Indians, Koreans, and-possibly- Tibetans, Bactrians, and other Central Asians. All these groups gathered in Samarkand on a special occasion that scholars identified as the celebration of the New Year festival. Chinese written sources of the Sui-Tang period mentioned a royal pavilion in central Sogdiana where the local king was used to pray every day. Such an information seems to match well with the paintings preserved in Afrasyab. The present paper is divided in four parts, each one dedicated to one of the kingdoms mentioned in Chinese sources that present some parallels in the paintings.

Anger and Atonement in Mughal India: An alternative account of Akbar's 1578 hunt

AbstractAnger as an emotion is seldom attributed to Akbar (r. 1556–1605), the most admired of the Mughal emperors. Yet, on one notable day in 1578, he allegedly got so enraged that he almost lost his mind, according to Dalpat Vilas, an obscure chronicle composed in the vernacular. While the aftermath of Akbar's anger was reported in several Persian histories emanating from court circles, the royal rage itself was not. Why and how Dalpat Vilas ascribed anger, not only to the emperor but also to the local king, Raja Ray Singh of Bikaner, is the central issue addressed here. What little we know about the history of anger in precolonial India indicates it was an emotion that kings were advised to avoid, in both Sanskrit and Persian literature. But, from the more subaltern vantage point of Dalpat Vilas, written for a young Rajput warrior in a local dialect, rulers did act angrily and not always justly. This case illustrates the historiographic value of Indic-language texts sponsored by local subordinates of the Mughals, which can provide alternative perspectives on the empire. It also suggests the existence of multiple emotional communities in Mughal India, in which the significance of anger differed.

Purple empowerment --The political skills of Roman merchants over the Indian Ocean trade

Periplus leave numbers of the Roman empire trade records in the Indian Ocean. This paper mainly takes the transaction items of the purple clothes from Periplus as the entry point. Purple clothes are luxury goods with expensive value and hierarchical significance. The luxury purple clothing is usually sold along the Mediterranean coast but appears in the Indian Ocean market. Through the location and trade route of purple clothing in the Indian Ocean trading market, this paper reanalyzes the new diplomatic mode that the Roman Empire may carry out in the Indian Ocean, namely the local King obtains the authorization of the Roman Empire through purple clothes. If purple clothing is not only a luxury, but also a symbol of imperial power, then its presence in Indian Ocean trade will have political influence, not only as a diplomatic gift, but also as a potentially authorized item. It also reflects the different forms of expansion of the Roman Empire in the Indian Ocean.

Dadanitic b-rʾy as referring to a local calendar?

AbstractThis article will discuss the dating formula in the Dadanitic inscriptions. So far, some of these have been interpreted to refer not only to the reign of the local king (mlk lḥyn), but also to another political official called rʾy. The article will discuss the merit of this interpretation based on both the questionable etymology of the term rʾy and the problematic interpretation of the terms following this word as personal names. Instead, a new interpretation of this formula as a reference to a local calendar will be explored in light of the occurrence of a similar word rʾy in Safaitic dating formula, and comparison to other ancient methods of time reckoning in the region.

“Ready or not here I come” - an audit of pre-operative assessment according to local King's guidelines

“Ready or not here I come” - an audit of pre-operative assessment according to local King's guidelines

Overeating and Mindfulness in Ancient India

Reviews of relevant research point to the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) in reducing tendencies toward overeating and in leading to weight reduction. In this article, I present an early Buddhist perspective on the potential of mindfulness practice in this respect, based on examining a discourse that reports the Buddha himself giving instructions on mindful eating to a local king. The discourse in question shows that the current employment of mindfulness for such purposes is not a recent innovation but rather has an antecedent in early Buddhist texts. I also relate a recent model of three steps for reducing eating disorders to the early Buddhist teaching on how seeing the gratification and the disadvantage can lead to release from craving-dominated ways of behavior.

不同黄瓜品种在种子萌发期对NaCl盐胁迫的响应

用150 mmol/L NaCl盐溶液对10个不同黄瓜品种进行芽期胁迫处理,调查9个生理指标的变化，采用隶属函数法综合评价不同品种黄瓜的耐盐能力。结果表明:不同黄瓜品种的不同生理指标对NaCl盐胁迫的响应不同。采用隶属函数法，综合评价10个不同黄瓜品种的耐盐能力依次为秀丽旱黄瓜 > 津耘黄瓜 > 玉宝、本地黄黄瓜 > 春宝王中王 > 本地王黄瓜、春秋旱黄瓜 > 绿翡翠 > 如玉 > 韩研银丰黄瓜。 10 cucumber varieties were treated with 150 mmol/L NaCl salt solution at seed germination stage, and 9 physiological indexes were investigated. The salt tolerance ability of different cucumber va-rieties was evaluated by membership function method. The results showed that different physio-logical indexes of different cucumber varieties had different responses to NaCl salt stress. The salt tolerance ability of 10 different cucumber varieties was evaluated as follows: xiulihan > Jinyun > Yubao, local yellow > spring Baowangzhongwang > local king, chunqiuhan > lvfeicui > Ruyu > hnayan Yinfeng.

A Viking Ship Graffito from Kilclief, County Down, Ireland

Deep ploughing near Kilclief, County Down, near the site of an early monastery, disturbed a large quantity of buried stones. One of these displayed a Viking-type ship with a furled sail. Decorative artwork on the stone suggests an 11th-century date. The ship displays close similarities to Viking ship graffiti in Viking Dublin and in the Scandinavian homelands. This article describes the decorated stone and suggests that it represents an Irish ship constructed in the Viking style. Documentary sources indicate that ships were being granted by an Irish over-king to a local king of this area at this time.

The Dragon King and the 1931 Wuhan Flood: Religious Rumors and Environmental Disasters in Republican China

This article explores popular religious conceptualizations of the environment and disasters in early twentieth-century China. In 1931, the city of Wuhan experienced a catastrophic flood. Soon a rumor began to circulate suggesting that the disaster had been caused by the recent demolition of a local Dragon King Temple. This article examines this rumor as a mode of popular discourse, using it to illustrate debates among members of the local population regarding the link between the environment, religion, and disasters. It describes the place of Dragon Kings in late imperial religious environmental management, before discussing how the status of these deities was devalued during the early twentieth century. It argues that, in spite of vigorous attempts at secular reform, for a large section of the population the experience of disasters continued to be dominated by popular religious conceptualizations of the environment. While modern critics disparaged what they saw as lamentable superstitions, for many people rainmaking Dragon Kings continued to exist.

Hepato- and nephroprotective activities of a Nigerian local king tuber oyster mushroom, Pleurotus tuberregium (higher Basidiomycetes), in chemically induced organ toxicities in rats.

Chronic kidney disease, end-stage renal failure, and liver diseases are increasing worldwide and constitute a huge burden on health care costs, with attendant high morbidity and debility. Despite advances in modern medicine, there are still no licensed drugs that satisfactorily restore lost kidney or hepatic functions. In this study the chemoprotective effects of the hot aqueous extract of a local edible oyster mushroom, Pleurotus tuberregium (APTR), was evaluated in experimental liver and kidney toxicities. The effect of APTR on carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)- and paracetamol (PCM)-induced hepatotoxicity in rats was investigated by determining serum concentrations of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP). Short-term oral treatment with APTR (100 and 250 mg/kg) significantly reduced (P < 0.05) the increased concentrations of AST, ALT, and ALP induced in both PCM and CCl4 models of liver toxicity. APTR (100 and 250 mg/kg) decreased the mean serum AST concentrations by as much as 73.00% and 99.37%, respectively, in PCM-treated rats. Nephroprotection was assessed by determining the serum concentrations of creatinine and urea, as well as antioxidant enzymes, in kidney tissue homogenates after a repeated high dose of gentamicin. APTR (100 and 250 mg/kg) produced a significant decrease (P < 0.05) in the escalated serum concentrations of creatinine and urea by as much as 48.36% and 41.53%, respectively, compared to control. Similarly, levels of the antioxidant enzymes catalase, glutathione peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase in kidney tissue were increased in a dose-related manner in groups that received oral APTR supplementation. The results of this study suggest that the consumption of our local edible mushroom, P. tuberregium, could, in addition to its high nutritive value, protect the liver and kidneys from oxidative damage caused by drugs and toxicants such as CCl4 and high doses of gentamicin and PCM.

Lives of the Buddha: Vessantara the Charitable Prince

Knowledge about the past lives of the Buddha is essential to understandingBuddhistpractice inTheravadaBuddhist countries.Althoughnotwell knownor emphasized in theWest, the stories provide a richnarrativeunderpinning about how to attain the virtues necessary for a meaningful life. Mural paintings of thepast lives of theBuddhahave illuminated thewalls of Buddhist temples in countries practicing Theravada Buddhism(Doctrineof theElders) inSoutheastAsia forcenturies.2,3 Particular attention is paid to the last 10 lives (incarnations) of the Buddha because in them, he perfected the cardinal virtues that were requisite to being reborn as a Buddha. The last of these lives celebratesPrinceVessantara’smasteryof thevirtue of generosity. Generosity is a virtue celebrated in theWest at the endof eachyear; perhaps this ancientBuddhist talewill resonate with the upcoming holiday season. According to Buddhist tradition, Vessantara’s quest began 4 countless eons ago, when a young man resolved to become a fully awakened Buddha after encountering Dipankara, the Buddha of the past age.1 Inspired by Dipankara, he prostrated himself before him. Over more than 500 ensuing lifetimes, he gradually attained the 10 perfections, the qualities necessary for the supreme rebirth, and was enlightened. Unselfishly,he finds the resolve topersist inhisgoalovermany lifetimes. In these last 10 lives,moral integrity, patienceor forbearance (restraintwhenprovoked), truthfulness, lovingkindness (the foundation of dealing with others), equanimity (an imperturbablemind), andwisdommustbeattainedbefore the final virtue of generosity can be fully incarnated.1 Following enlightenment, the Buddha returned to his parental home to share this attainment, but arrogant older relatives did not accept his new status. Only when his father, the king, was convinced and bowed down to acknowledge the teachings did they join in the rejoicing. At that moment, rain clouds appeared and red drops of rain began to fall. The Buddha explained that rain like this fell in his last lifetime.2 In that lifetime,hismother,Phusati, chief consortofSakka, kingof thegods,descended to thehumanworldwhere shewas born in thecourtof akingand latermarriedKingSanjaya.Their sonVessantarawasakindandgenerouspersonwhofromchildhood on gave gifts and belongings to others. His parentswere delighted by their son's character. Hemarried PrincessMaddi and had 2 children: Prince Jali and Princess Kanhajina.When he reached maturity, his father retired, and Vessantara was crowned king.2,3 Oneday, inhisgenerosity, thenewkinggaveawaytheroyal white elephant to aneighboring kingdomthatwas experiencing a drought. The royal white elephant was known by all to ensure prosperity, and the people of the kingdomwere horrified at his indiscretion. They demanded that the old king return and thatKingVessantara be banished. Vessantara agreed to go and gave the kingdom back to his father. King Sanjaya resumed the throneand, findingnootheroption, banishedhis son and his son’s family from the kingdom. Before departing with his wife Maddi and their 2 children, Vessantara donated all hiswealth to the people of the kingdom. The family left on a horse-drawn chariot, but soon afterward, Vessantara gave away the horses. Deities appeared in the form of stags to pull the chariot, but he gave away the chariot. Now, on foot, the family arrived in theneighboringkingdomofCeta,whereVessantara’s uncle and Maddi’s parents resided.3 The local king greeted them and, touched by their story, offered his throne to Vessantara. Vessantara declined and proceeded to the forest, where he and his family resided in huts provided by the gods,onefor the formerkingandtheother for the formerqueen and children. They lived a simple ascetic life, and each day, Maddi went to the forest and gathered food for her family. As a safeguard, the king of Ceta assigned a hunter to guard the forest and keep intruders away. Jujaka, an old mean-spirited Brahmin, lived nearby with his beautiful hardworking youngwife, Amittada,whowent to the villagewell and brought her husbandwater and provided for his every need. The other village women resented her industriousness for it put them to shame, and so they attacked her.After that, sheadamantlydemandedthatherhusbandfind her servants to help her to combat the women’s ridicule. She and Jujaka plotted to take advantage of Vessantara’s generosity by demanding that Vessantara’s children be given to him as servants forher.Obtainingentry to the forest by tricking the hunter who was guarding it, Jujaka waited until Maddi was away andmade his request. Vessantara obliged, but the childrenwere shocked, ran away, andhid in a lotus pond.Vessantara found them and convinced them to go with Jujaka (because it would help their father to be perfect in generosity), and so they agreed.Vessantara, notwanting the children tobe slaves, proposed that Jujaka take the prince and princess to their grandfather the king, where Jujaka would be richly rewarded for their return. Jujaka refused, insisting they would be his wife's servants, and tied the children with vines and dragged them away, beating and scolding them. Vessantarawas furious and couldnot tolerate Jujaka’s behaviorandreachedforhisweaponwith thoughtsofkillinghim. However, he controlledhis anger (exhibiting forbearance) and

THE FLIGHT FROM INCEST AS A LATIN PLAY: THE "COMOEDIA SINE NOMINE", PETRARCH, AND THE AVIGNON PAPACY

The Comoedia sine nomine (sometimes cited as Columpnarium) is a seven-act play in Latin by an unknown author which survives in a single manuscript, Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France, Lat. 8163.1 It is a most unusual classicizing adaptation of a plot which was very popular in the later Middle Ages, a combination of two widely used narrative motifs, the Flight from the Incestuous Father and the Falsely Accused Queen.2 Emile Roy in his 1902 edition assumed that the manuscript dated from the fifteenth century and was written in Italy, but in the view of Francois Avril of the Bibliotheque nationale, it was produced in the mid-fourteenth century at Avignon under Italian influence.3 I shall return later in this essay to the question of dating and provenance to argue that the text - or at least this particular manuscript of it - can be linked to Petrarch's circle in Avignon. It could of course have been composed considerably earlier than the surviving exemplar, but I believe that there are strong grounds for positing an Avignon provenance, and for speculating that although the plot is a well-known one, this particular version may be intended to allude to the papal schism.Plot and styleFirst I will consider the many ways in which the Comoedia is an unusual version of a popular, if disturbing, medieval narrative. The writer - or his source - has gone to a lot of trouble to rework the plot elaborately in classical terms, with a mish-mash of classical names.(I) The dying queen of the Carilli makes her husband King Emolphus swear only to marry a woman who looks exactly like her. He sends the court painters to travel the world and record possible candidates. (II) The people urge Emolphus to remarry; Princess Hermionides' nurse rashly remarks that her charge is the image of her dead mother. The king falls passionately in love with his daughter and decides to marry her. (Ill) Hermionides is horrified and wants to die. The nurse plots to save her: she persuades the king to delay the wedding until the gods have been placated, and escapes with the princess to Phocis. (IV) There they are taken in by Sophia, an old friend of the nurse and expert needlewoman. Hermionides is seen by the local king, Orestes, who falls madly in love with her. He sends Aphrodissa, a bawd, to negotiate for him, and they are secretly married.(V) Orestes' mother, Queen Olicomesta, is furious, as her son had foreseen. Orestes leaves for a tournament at Athens to pursue glory at Hermionides' urging, even though she is pregnant. (VI) When she bears a fine son, the messenger Epiphanius stays with Olicomesta en route to Athens, and while he is drunk the clever maid Pharia substitutes a letter announcing that the baby is an Ethiopian monster. This news makes Orestes sad, but he orders mother and child to be well looked after until his return. Again Epiphanius stops che'.i Olicomesta, and the letter is changed to order the killing of mother and baby. The faithful seneschal Coelius exposes the baby in a watertight cradle, and sends Hermionides into exile.(VII) The baby in its richly equipped cradle is found by Achironeus, a poor fisherman. He wants to adopt the child, but first consults the oracle of Apollo on Parnassus, after discussing the matter with his friend Amyclas. Their conversation is overheard by Orestes and his counsellor Regulus, who are on their way back from Athens, suspicious of recent events. Coelius too is suspicious and discovers the forged letter trick, which he reveals to Orestes and Regulus. Meanwhile Hermionides, wandering on Parnassus, meets a shepherd who urges her to consult the oracle. All the main characters then make for the oracle; Hermionides meets Achironeus the fisherman, hears his story, recognizes the baby as hers, and manages to recover him. The nurse, Orestes, and Coelius all overhear their conversation; Hermionides and Orestes are reunited. News arrives that Olicomesta and her maid are dead. The nurse announces that Emolphus is dead and that Hermionides has inherited the kingdom. …

Chaucer Abroad, Chaucer at Home:

Chaucer Abroad, Chaucer at Home:

The Land Acquisition Motif in the Irish and Russian Folklore Traditions

The paper is devoted to a treatment of later narrative forms from Irish and Russian folklore traditions that preserved some archaic cognitive structures to do with the notions of space, territory and its domestication. The Irish tale ‘St. Columcille on Tory’ (‘Colm Cille i dToraigh’, Béaloideas 21 (1951-52) 196-198 cf. Betha Colaim Cille by M. Ó Domhnaill, ed. Kelleher &amp; Schoepperle, §111) describes St. Columcille’s visit to the island of Tory. The saint has to overcome the determination of the other two saints, Begley and Finnian, who desire to step onto the island before him, and the resistance of the local king. In order to succeed with his mission, firstly St. Columcille wins a conquest over the saints and throws his staff so that it miraculously transforms into a spear and reaches the island, and, secondly, conquers the territory of the island by laying his cloak which covers the whole ground. The king of the island sets a malicious hound against the saint, but the latter makes the sign of the cross over the dog which is thus killed. The Russian tale ‘The Frog Princess’ (‘Царевна-лягушка’, А. Н. Афанасьев, Народные русские сказки, IV, М., 1912, № 269, 264-7) represents a wide-spread type of a fairy tale The Frog as a Bride (= АТ 402). In the tale, the king sets his three sons on a quest to find their future wives. The sons shoot three arrows who are taken by a merchant’s daughter, by a boyar’s daughter and by a frog – to whom the youngest of the three is married. The king then sets three difficult tasks to his daughters-in-law, one of which is the weaving of a carpet. The frog princess succeeds in her completion of the tasks, finally taking a form of a beautiful ‘supernatural wife’. While she is still in this form, the youngest prince burns the frog skin in the stove. Having done that, he loses his wife to the Otherworld and has to win her over again. I shall argue that both accounts preserved a well-attested ancient motif of the domestication of the territory, later treated in terms of the acquisition of kingship. The motif can be reconstructed on the basis of internal evidence survived in the sources under discussion. Both tales account for similar number of suitors for kingship (three saints in the Irish source vs. three princes in the Russian tale). The metaphorical conquest of the land is represented by (a) throwing/shooting of a weapon (the magic spear-staff of the saint vs. the arrow of the prince) and (b) spreading of a cloth (saint’s cloak vs. frog skin cf. weaving of a carpet symbolically representing the whole kingdom). (Needless to say, topics (a) and (b) above correlate as vertical vs. horizontal types of domestication of space.) The conquest of the land is finalised by overcoming the resistance of the land’s malevolent aspect. In the case of the Tory legend, the aspect is represented by its degraded prototype – a malicious dog that the king sets upon the saint. In the case of the Russian fairy-tale, the aspect is developed into a plot of the hero’s visit to the Otherworld where he has to fight his opponents.

FROM STRANGER-KING TO STRANGER-SHAIKH

Three political institutions came into being successively in Southeast Asia and co-existed for several centuries: stranger-kingship, cosmopolitan law and bureaucratic rationality. Each was based on a different set of practices, and each served to estrange political authorities from their subjects. Firstly, cosmological rituals placed the stranger-king above the factional loyalties of his subjects. Secondly, cosmopolitan legal codes and mystical practices derived from Islamic scriptures placed the ulama and shaikh above the elders who enforced local customs – and, in times of crisis, even above the local king. Thirdly, impersonal bureaucratic procedures and access to an archive of documents placed the officers of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and of the colonial state above the ‘natives’. This paper argues that all three institutions be seen as a symbolic expression of a general requirement for the existence of ordered social life, namely the need for institutions that can rise above the conflicts and factionalism generated by everyday events. It traces the process by which the traditional authority of stranger-kings in south Sulawesi was complemented and contradicted after 1605 by the charismatic authority of Islamic shaikhs, and by the bureaucratic authority of Dutch officials.

Strontium Isotopes and the Study of Human Mobility in Ancient Mesoamerica

We analyzed strontium isotopes in more than 500 samples of shell, bone, and dental enamel from modern and archaeological contexts throughout Mesoamerica. The results correspond closely with expectations based upon the local geology and earlier measurements of geological materials. The results show that isotopic variation is significant across Mesoamerica. Thus strontium isotope ratios in dental enamel, which mark the place of childhood residence, can be used not only to document mobility but also in some cases to determine geographic origin. We present five archaeological case studies to illustrate the anthropological significance and range of applications for this technique: the origins of individuals in the “Oaxaca Barrio” at Teotihuacan, a northern origin for the founder of Copan, a local king at Tikal, the regional origin of two of Palenque's rulers, and individuals of African birth in a colonial cemetery in Campeche.

“With the Earth as a Lamp and the Sun as the Flame”: Lighting Devotion in South India

Traditional biographical literature of the Sri Vaisnava community says that the first teacher, Natamuni (ca. tenth century), was very knowledgeable in music. He was, apparently, asked to be a referee in a music competition between two courtesans. One of them was adept at human music, and the other had mastered divine music. A local king had apparently ruled in favor of the "human" music, and the other dancer, piqued, had taken her case to the people. Natamuni, who was entranced by the intricacies of her rhythm and singing techniques, explained the superiority of her music to the king and brought her recognition. Traditional biographies say that the entire Nalayira Tivya Pirapantam (The Sacred Collection of Four Thousand Verses), which is a compendium of works by the Tamil poet-saints, had been hitherto forgotten and was revealed to Natamuni. Natamuni then set the Tivya Pirapantam to the form of divine music practiced by the courtesan, choreographed the songs, and taught it to his two nephews. These songs were then performed in temples. This story, narrated in the Kuruparamparaprapavam (Arayirappati) (The Splendor of the Succession of Teachers in Six Thousand Units) in the thirteenth century, marks a seminal moment in the reflection of a tradition on how it all came to be. The

The First Millennium bc: Temple Enclosure or Urban Citadel?

The first millennium bc brought warfare to the interior of Egypt on a significant scale. We have two vivid records, one written and the other pictorial. The former is a first-person narrative of the Napatan (Sudanese) king Piankhy who, having gained control of the south of Egypt, embarked in 730 bc on a methodical subjugation of the rest of the country, then under the rule of several local families. During the seemingly irresistible northward progress of his army Piankhy makes frequent reference to walls with battlements and gates which could be countered with siege towers/battering rams and the erection of earthen ramps, although Piankhy himself preferred the tactic of direct storming. Within the circuit of these walls lay treasuries and granaries and, in the case of the city of Hermopolis in Middle Egypt, the palace of the local king Nemlut together with its stables for horses.

In the time of trees and sorrows: nature, power, and memory in Rajasthan

In the Time of Trees and Sorrows showcases peasants' memories of everyday life in North India under royal rule before Indian Independence and their musings on the contrast between the old days and the unprecedented shifts that a half century has wrought. It is an oral history of the former Kingdom of Sawar in the modern state of Rajasthan, India, as it was from the 1930s to the 1950s. Based on testimonies from the early 1990s, the book stands as a polyvocal account of the radical political and environmental changes the region and its people have faced in the twentieth century. Not just the story of modernity from the perspective of a rural village, these interviews and author commentaries narrate a relatively sudden transformation for this small community from subjection to a local despot and to a remote colonial power to citizenship in a modern postcolonial democracy. Unlike other recent studies of Rajasthan, whose former princes continue to fascinate particularly the Western imagination, the current study gives voice exclusively to former subjects who endured the double oppression of colonial and regional rulers. Gold and Gujar thus place subjective subaltern experiences of daily rural routines, manifestations of power relations, and sweeping changes to the environment (after the fall of kings) that turned lush forests into a barren landscape on equal footing with historical fact and archival sources. Nature as idea and concept, culturally laden as it is in Western thought, plays a central role in this ethnographic text. Ambiguous and complex, nature reflects the variegated responses Sawar informants had to their surroundings and to their beggar past (forced labour under the local king). The framing questions of this South Asian history are: What was it like in the time of kings? and What happened to the trees? Specialists of South Asian history, anthropology, subaltern studies, and the environment will welcome publication of this book.